Note 32 — INTRODUCTION

The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to Seneca in Delectus, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to Anth. Lat., op. cit., 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram with line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11 (ed., Vergil, Appendix, cum supplemento ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia, however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, Anth. Lat., 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of something like a Gradus ad Parnassum. The ms reads, "nunc et reges tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive tibi, nam moriere tibi." superba pati fastidia corresponds to Vergil, Ecl. 2.15; spem ... caducam to Ovid, Epist. 15 (sive 16, "Paris Helenae"). 169 (sive 171).

The epigram as it stands in the anthology, then, is a result of Scaliger's disintegration of Anth. Lat. 407, which suggested beginning with line 5 and adding 408. 7-8 from the responsory poem. But this couplet is subjected to improvement to adjust it to the sense, to sustain the level of feeling, and to enhance the sententious point. Thus, with the aid of phrases from Vergil and Ovid, using mitte and despice as fillers and helpers, the epigram is concluded "with a noble, exalted and true thought," as the editor says in the notes.